Business Plan Software

Find the best business plan software for you

Creating and publishing a cohesive, sensible and professional business plan is the first step towards attracting investors and getting bank loans for your start-up business. Business plan software offers expert assistance in conceiving, drafting and polishing these all-important documents, and can benefit you greatly regardless of your level of experience with them.

Features of the Best Business Plan Software

Positive business plan software reviews tend to point to the same set of characteristics: comprehensive basics, intuitive interfaces, custom capabilities and helpful advanced features.

The basics of any quality piece of business plan software include dozens (if not hundreds) of different templates, a complete collection of industry profiles, the ability to import files from common office programs and document format flexibility. Quality programs also offer helpful wizards that will walk you through every step of the document creation process.

Some of the customizable capabilities of business plan software include the ability to create revenue projections, integrate existing data and financials from spreadsheets, extend your business plan years into the future, and much more. Advanced features are designed to help you go into deep detail about the various aspects of your business, including growth projections, relationships with clients and customers, revenue streams and expense tracking. In this way, it shares some of the features of ERP software, which allows you to anticipate and manage the future of your business.

Buying Business Plan Software Products

While you can get open-source, free business plan software off the Internet, you'll enjoy a much more comprehensive range of features if you purchase a licensed piece of software. Free business plan software tends only to offer the barebones basics.

Many of the best-reviewed products are available for various operating systems, so if you're looking for Mac business plan software or Linux business plan software and you're concerned about compatibility issues, you're best off sticking with one of the major manufacturers.

The benefits of using business plan software are many: you'll present your plan in standardized, industry-approved formats, and no matter what your level of experience with writing business plan, you'll present a professional-quality document to investors and banks. A simple investment in a quality piece of business plan software can also save you thousands of dollars in fees, compared to what you'd pay if you hired a consultant to write a business plan on your behalf.